Hiroshi Miyama -- Gion Yamizakura（祇園闇桜）

 

After all these years living in the Great White North with occasional trips back to the old country, my parents have still maintained their love for enka music. So it's not surprising that they do look forward to their episodes of "Uta Con"（うたコン）and "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）, especially the latter.

But my mother can be very particular even within the enka genre. So it means something when she openly says that she likes a song. And so she has expressed her affinity for Hiroshi Miyama's（三山ひろし）latest enka tune "Gion Yamizakura" (The Dark Cherry Blossoms of Gion). Released in June this year as his 21st single, the title sounds like something that should be fronting a mystery novel but instead, this delicate traditional ballad talks of a tragic love affair that takes place in Kyoto. Miyama, who I usually think is more for the boisterously sung tunes, sounds almost like the bidanshi enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）with his own very sensitive and delicate approach to the genre. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, "Gion Yamizakura" peaked at No. 22 on Oricon. Methinks that this will get him back onto the Kohaku Utagassen in a few months' time.